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Dyerseve726
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What am I even growing?
#28579774 - 12/12/23 09:36 AM (1 month, 15 days ago) |
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First timer. Started on agar. Everything seemed to be going well, but it's been six days since transferring to grain and I think I'm seeing some green in there. Am I even growing cubensis at all here? After reading the contamination section, I'm worried I haven't even been cultivating mushrooms at all, lol. Never got rope like mycelium in the agar, but it never turned color either, so I thought I did good. Is this just contam of normal cube mycelium or is this entire clump here the wrong thing entirely? The clump is one of the pieces of agar I threw in caked with oats. It did have blue food coloring in it. I've got four more agar dishes that I can use, but I don't want to continue if I'm just growing mold.
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Kinoko314
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It looks like cubensis myc to me, but I see that little green spot hiding behind it. I would assume it's mold also growing alongside cubensis.
You can wait to see what happens, but that jar is probably trash.
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Way
The


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Re: What am I even growing? [Re: Kinoko314]
#28579817 - 12/12/23 10:43 AM (1 month, 15 days ago) |
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I think the color is the agar, Kinoko.
Looks like cube myc to me. Let it go. Give it a shake in a day or two and see what happens.
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That's the way she goes, boys. Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn't, cause that's the fuckin way she goes.
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Dyerseve726
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Re: What am I even growing? [Re: Way]
#28579862 - 12/12/23 11:24 AM (1 month, 15 days ago) |
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Thanks guys! I'll let em go for a few days and see what they get up to. Glad the mycelium looks legit though. I'd be sad if I was just growing mold the last few weeks, haha.
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Kinoko314
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Re: What am I even growing? [Re: Way]
#28579922 - 12/12/23 12:34 PM (1 month, 15 days ago) |
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Quote:
Way said: I think the color is the agar, Kinoko.
I hope you're right. If his agar didn't look like that I assume he would have said so, so you probably are right.
Sorry if I jumped to conclusions there.
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Way
The


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Re: What am I even growing? [Re: Kinoko314]
#28579938 - 12/12/23 12:49 PM (1 month, 15 days ago) |
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I could be wrong as well. I just see the little blue speck and he said his agar was blue 
Guess we will know soon enough haha
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That's the way she goes, boys. Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn't, cause that's the fuckin way she goes.
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HugheGRection


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Re: What am I even growing? [Re: Way]
#28579999 - 12/12/23 01:47 PM (1 month, 15 days ago) |
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To me it looks blue, so fingers crossed its just a bit of leftover dye the Mycelium hadn't eaten. 6 days in it does seem a little slow for A2G, but that could be genetics or the variety. How did you prepare your grains?
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Dyerseve726
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I thought it was slow also, but I had a rough go transferring. I wasn't aware of the practices most people use to get the pieces buried. Instead, I just dropped my pieces on top and, when I tried to shake to bury them, a lot of the pieces stuck to the sides and weren't touching grain at all, lol. Also, most of the blue dye has been consumed, which is why I assumed that blue/green dot was contam. I still assume it is.
As far as preparing my grain, I boiled the oats for 40 minutes with a little gypsum, strained, then spread out on a towel to cool. Placed in jars when they just left a tiny bit of moisture on a paper towel, then PC'd for two hours. I did notice some condensation in the jars after the PC, so I did wonder if I put them in too wet.
Edited by Dyerseve726 (12/12/23 05:28 PM)
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HugheGRection


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Re: What am I even growing? [Re: Dyerseve726] 1
#28580330 - 12/12/23 06:18 PM (1 month, 15 days ago) |
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When I drop an Agar wedge into a jar of grain, I rotate the jar in a way to get the wedge against the glass, but ideally with myelium side facing the grains. It's not much of a shake, more of a rotation or elliptical motion, when the wedge sticks to the lid or anywhere I don't want it to be, I'll shake it a bit to dislodge it.
I don't think there's an issue with your grain prep, seems youre following a pretty established tek for oats, I use Rye, so theres probably some slight differences, but I pretty typically will have some condensation after the PC cycle, what I do is shake the jars when they're cool enough to handle to redistribute all of the grains and they end up reabsorbing the moisture.
Still hoping its nothing, but maybe your culture wasn't as clean as you thought, or you just got a bad luck of the draw with the plate you chose to send to grain. It happens until it doesn't happen as often.
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redchigh
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I've read in cases like this if the mycelium is growing faster than the green splot, it may be better not to shake. Something about mycelium being able to spread easily from grain to grain, and sure it might be from the agar. It temporarily stunts the mycelium but not other contams. Itll take longer of course, but higher chance of usable fruit.
Guessing it was a ss?
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Way
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Re: What am I even growing? [Re: redchigh] 1
#28580598 - 12/12/23 09:59 PM (1 month, 15 days ago) |
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It is true that shaking grains weakens the mycelium and can allow contamination to to flourish if present. However, the alternative it to let this jar fully colonize without shaking which seems unreasonable to me at this point.
If it fails to recover from the shake then you don't want to use it as spawn anyway. If it recovers slowly or recovers but fails the checklist you know to top fruit it or shoebox it.
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That's the way she goes, boys. Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn't, cause that's the fuckin way she goes.
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Dyerseve726
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Re: What am I even growing? [Re: redchigh]
#28580608 - 12/12/23 10:07 PM (1 month, 15 days ago) |
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I'm sorry, SS?
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HugheGRection


Registered: 02/04/21
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In the context i assume he means "Spore Solution" or "Spore Syringe", which are notorious for causing issues for people who use them to inoculate grains or substrate bags
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Edited by HugheGRection (12/12/23 10:25 PM)
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Dyerseve726
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Ah, yeah, spore syringe. But my agar dishes look clean clean clean (both the first gen from spores and the agar to agar transfers). Almost certain any contam happened during the transfer. It was the first part of this I felt like I was fumbling around. Agar kept sticking to my scalpel so I had to use the edge of the jar to get it off and I think that's where I went wrong. I had a good feeling I'd effed it up. I think the spores were clean.
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Dyerseve726
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Alright, so whatever might be causing that green/blue color has not progressed. In fact, it's mostly gone. The mycelium that's there looks healthy to me now in all five grain jars and looks like a majority of the jars will be colonized enough to shake in another day or two. It's still moving slowly, but I think that may be due to a few things: I shook my jars like an idiot before they were ready. My temps are averaging around 74°F. I'm reading now that most people keep their spawn closer to 80°. And lastly, I feel like I either didn't boil my grain long enough and actually put it in too dry, or I did the opposite and put it in too wet...I have no idea which,lol, but I'm just guessing the environment is not ideal and that's the main issue here, not contamination.
I'll add a pic in another couple days to see what yall think, but I'm starting to feel more confident. Thanks for your help!
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CultiV8
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Registered: 08/16/14
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where are you reading that 80°F for spawn is recommended? 74 is perfect. to worry less about grain prep, try following an established tek to the letter
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shakology
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Quote:
Dyerseve726 said: Ah, yeah, spore syringe. But my agar dishes look clean clean clean (both the first gen from spores and the agar to agar transfers). Almost certain any contam happened during the transfer. It was the first part of this I felt like I was fumbling around. Agar kept sticking to my scalpel so I had to use the edge of the jar to get it off and I think that's where I went wrong. I had a good feeling I'd effed it up. I think the spores were clean.
the scalpel was flame sterilized, the edge of the jar was pressure sterilized, I don't think that's the problem. Happy to let someone more knowledgeable correct me, but I think you're good there. I've had that trouble too, usually just tap the scalpel handle against the side of whatever I'm transferring into to dislodge the agar chunk
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Dyerseve726
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Re: What am I even growing? [Re: shakology]
#28583517 - 12/15/23 06:48 AM (1 month, 13 days ago) |
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Quote:
CultiV8 said: where are you reading that 80°F for spawn is recommended? 74 is perfect. to worry less about grain prep, try following an established tek to the letter
I'm trying my best, but there's dozens of how to's and most of them vary in some way. I see some that say low 70s, others say high 70s to 80°. One said to boil the oats for 30 minutes. One said 45 minutes. Another said open them up and see how gelatinous they are. It's a lot to take in all at once.
Quote:
shakology said:
the scalpel was flame sterilized, the edge of the jar was pressure sterilized, I don't think that's the problem. Happy to let someone more knowledgeable correct me, but I think you're good there. I've had that trouble too, usually just tap the scalpel handle against the side of whatever I'm transferring into to dislodge the agar chunk
You may be right. I worried about the edge of the jars mostly because it was tough getting the lids off. I was wearing gloves that had been doused in rubbing alcohol, but I know that's not 100%.
Here's a few pictures of where things are now. These are two of the better looking jars, but even these I am now concerned about. Am I correct in that condensation in the jar near where stuff is growing is generally bad? Usually some kind of bacterial activity causing heat, yes? I'm still gonna let these go for a while, but I'm losing hope again, lol.


And here's all of them. You can see the ones where I wasn't able to bury the agar at all, lol. It's just growing on top, but I'm hoping now that I've left them alone for a few days, there's more going on that I can't see yet.
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Way
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Re: What am I even growing? [Re: Dyerseve726] 2
#28583769 - 12/15/23 10:23 AM (1 month, 12 days ago) |
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Those are looking good so far. A small bit of condensation by itself isn't that worrying. It's when it presents with other symptoms of contaminated spawn that you worry.
Temp wise, you're right, people are all over the place. When I learned, it was that fruiting temps were low 70s and incubation was closer to 80.
I'd try not to worry about a few degrees and it's better to keep things a bit cooler than warmer as bacteria loves warmer temperatures.
I do my incubation and fruiting between 70-75f with no issues. I've found no need for separate temps or to go warmer.
Cubes aren't that picky when it comes down to temps.
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That's the way she goes, boys. Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn't, cause that's the fuckin way she goes.
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Dyerseve726
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Re: What am I even growing? [Re: Way]
#28583831 - 12/15/23 11:02 AM (1 month, 12 days ago) |
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Phwew! Glad you think they're lookin alright. I'm hoping they really take off now that they're starting to get established.
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